A Week on Academic Freedom

The program is open to all, no registration is needed for the seminars. Registration is only required if you wish to attend the informal reception.

Monday 20 October

Academic Freedom in Africa

Moderator: Elin Bjarnegård, Professor, Department of Government

09:15–10:00
Academia Cannot Give Rights, States Can
Liisa Laakso, Senior Researcher, The Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala

10:00–10:45
The University Teachers Association and Ghana's Public Universities Bill
Akosua Adomako Ampofo, Professor at Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana and Claude Ake Visiting Chair at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research and the Nordic Africa Institute

10:45–11:10
The Militarization of Campus Life: Student Violence as a Threat to Academic Freedom in Sub-Sahara Africa
Anders Themnér, Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor at Department of Peace and Conflict Research

11:10–11:30
Closing discussion

Organised by: Democracy and Higher Education.
Venue: The Humanities Theatre

Inauguration of the Week

13:00–13:15

Anders Hagfeldt, Vice-Chancellor, Uppsala University

Christina Garsten, Principal and Permanent Fellow, SCAS; Professor of Social Anthropology, Uppsala University; Professor of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University

Venue: The Humanities Theatre

Panel discussion: Från vackra ord till praktik – vad händer när universiteten tillämpar akademisk frihet i sin vardag? (Swedish)

Moderator: Anna Wetterbom, CEO of the Ragnar Söderberg Foundation

13:15–14:30
Anders Hagfeldt, Vice-Chancellor, Uppsala University

Anna Ekström, Chair, University Board, Umeå University; Minister of Education 2019–2022

Hans Adolfsson, Vice-Chancellor, Stockholm University

Anna Valtonen, Vice-Chancellor, University of Arts, Crafts and Design

Organised by: Democracy and Higher Education.
Venue: The Humanities Theatre

Academic Freedom under Pressure: Perspectives from the United States

Moderator: Adam Hjorthén, Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor at The Swedish Institute for North American Studies

15:00–17:00

Higher Education and U.S. “Soft Power”
Fredrik Logevall, Laurence D. Belfer Professor of History and International Affairs, Harvard University

Academic Freedom, Ideological Capture, and Viewpoint Diversity: Challenges to the autonomy of the University
Nicholas Dirks, President and Chief Executive Officer, New York Academy of Sciences & former Chancellor at University of California-Berkeley

Florida first, Sweden next? How academic freedom conflicts cross borders
Rebecca Selberg, Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Gender Studies, Lund University

Panel discussion
Adam Hjorthén (moderator), Fredrik Logevall, Nicholas Dirks, and Rebecca Selberg

17:00–
Informal reception
Registration for informal reception on Monday is required. Register here.

Organised by: Democracy and Higher Education.
Venue: The Humanities Theatre

Wednesday 22 October

Academic Freedom in EU Member States

Moderator: Johan Boberg, Research Coordinator, HERO

09:00–10:05
Measuring Academic Freedom In Europe: de Jure and de Facto Approaches
Terence Karran, Professor, University of Lincoln, UK

10:05–10:25
Coffee break

10:25–11:30
Academic freedom in Europe: de facto status and policy developments
Mari Elken, Associate Professor, University of Oslo

Venue: The Humanities Theatre
Organised by: Higher Education and Research as Objects of Study

Experiences from European countries where academic freedom is under threat

Moderator: Shirin Ahlbäck Öberg, Professor of Political Science and Deputy Director, HERO

13:00–13:50
The Challenge to Academic Freedom in Hungary
Andrew Ryder, Professor, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest

13:50–14:40
Slow Death? On Freedom in Polish Academia
Kinga Siewior, Assistant Professor, Jagiellonian University

14:40–15:00
Coffee break

15:00–15:40
How is the EU responding to academic freedom within the union?
Anna Jonsson Cornell, Professor, Uppsala University

15:40–16:00
Closing discussion

Venue: The Humanities Theatre
Organised by: Higher Education and Research as Objects of Study

Thursday 23 October

The situation for individual scholars worldwide

09:15–09:30
Introduction
Professor Christina Garsten, SCAS Principal

09:30–10:45
Academic Freedom – Perspectives from Asia
Navnita Chadha Behera, SCAS Fellow, Professor of International Relations, University of Delhi, & Sahana Ghosh, SCAS Fellow, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, National University of Singapore

11:00–12:15
Academic Freedom under Siege: Turkey’s Experience in the Age of Rising Authoritarianism
İnan Özdemir Taştan, PhD, Ankara University Institute of Social Sciences, Turkey, Former Barbro Klein Fellow, SCAS, Affiliated EUME Fellow at the Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin.

13:30–14:45
What We Talk About When We Talk About Academic Freedom: A View from the United States
Alisse Waterston, Non-resident Long-term Fellow for Programmes in Transnational Processes, Structural Violence, and Inequality, SCAS. Presidential Scholar and Professor of Anthropology Emerita, the City University of New York (CUNY)

15.00–16:15
The Paranoid Style and the American Academy
Michael Watts, Non-resident Long-term Fellow for Programmes on the Political Economy of Development and Development Policy, SCAS, Class of ‘63 Professor of Geography Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley, Visiting Professor, Committee on Environment, Globalization & Urbanization, University of Chicago

Additional speakers to be confirmed

Organised by: Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study
Venue: The Thunberg Lecture Hall, Linneanum, The Botanical Garden

Other related events during the week

Tuesday October 21

13:30–14:45
A Dual-loop Model and Institutional Neutrality: Doing Social Research in Uncertain Times
Biao Xiang, Director, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle. Venue: The Thunberg Lecture Hall, SCAS, Linneanum.
More information here.

15:00–16:15
Beyond Competitiveness? Academic Gift Culture and Its Discontents
Alexandra Urakova, Researcher, Södertörn University and Tampere University & Olli Pyyhtinen, Professor of Sociology, Tampere University.
Venue: The Thunberg Lecture Hall, SCAS, Linneanum
More information here.

18:00–19:00
Fängslande journalistik
Joakim Medin, reporter at Dagens ETC, Deniz Yücel, correspondent at Die Welt, and Kholod Saghir (moderator), writer and artistic director of the Uppsala International Literature Festival. Venue: Uppsala stadsbibliotek, Mallas sal.
More information here.